Dead
Pronunciation
- enPR: dĕd, IPA: /dɛd/
- Rhymes: -ɛd
- New Zealand Homophones: did
Origin
From Middle English ded, deed, from Old English dēad, from Proto-Germanic *daudaz. Compare West Frisian dead, Dutch dood, German tot, Danish død.
Full definition of dead
Adjective
dead
- (not comparable) No longer living.All of my grandparents are dead.
- (hyperbole) Figuratively, not alive; lacking life
- 1600, William Shakespeare, , Act III, Scene 3:When a man's verses cannot be understood, nor a man's good wit seconded with the forward child, understanding, it strikes a man more dead than a great reckoning in a little room.
- (of another person) So hated that they are absolutely ignored.He is dead to me.
- Without emotion.She stood with dead face and limp arms, unresponsive to my plea.
- Stationary; static.the dead load on the floor; a dead lift.
- Without interest to one of the senses; dull; flat.dead air; a dead glass of soda.
- Unproductive.dead time; dead fields; also in compounds.
- (not comparable, of a machine, device, or electrical circuit) Completely inactive; without power; without a signal.OK, the circuit's dead. Go ahead and cut the wire.Now that the motor's dead you can reach in and extract the spark plugs.
- (not comparable) Broken or inoperable.That monitor is dead; don’t bother hooking it up.
- (not comparable) No longer used or required.There are several dead laws still on the books regulating where horses may be hitched.Is this beer glass dead?
- (not comparable, sports) Not in play.Once the ball crosses the foul line, it's dead.
- (not comparable, baseball, slang, 1800s) Tagged out.
- (not comparable) Full and complete.dead stop; dead sleep; dead giveaway; dead silence
- (not comparable) Exact.dead center; dead aim; a dead eye; a dead level
- Experiencing pins and needles (paresthesia).After sitting on my hands for a while, my arms became dead.
- (informal) (Certain to be) in big trouble."You come back here this instant! Oh, when I get my hands on you, you're dead, mister!"
- Constructed so as not to transmit sound; soundless.a dead floor
- (obsolete) Bringing death; deadly.
- (legal) Cut off from the rights of a citizen; deprived of the power of enjoying the rights of property.A person who is banished or who becomes a monk is civilly dead.
- (engineering) Not imparting motion or power.the dead spindle of a lathe
Synonyms
Adverb
dead
Noun
dead
(plural dead)Synonyms
- (those who have died) the deceased
Verb
- (archaic) Formerly, "be dead" was used instead of "have died" as the perfect tense of "die".
- "I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead ἀπÎθανεν in vain." Galatians 2:21, King James Version (1611).
- (transitive) To prevent by disabling; stop.
- 1826, The Whole Works of the Right Rev. Edward Reynolds, Lord Bishop of Norwich, collected by Edward Reynolds, Benedict Riveley, and Alexander Chalmers. pp. 227. London: B. Holdsworth.“What a man should do, when finds his natural impotency dead him in spiritual worksâ€
- (transitive) To make dead; to deaden; to deprive of life, force, or vigour.
- ChapmanHeaven's stern decree,
With many an ill, hath numbed and deaded me. - (UK, transitive, slang) To kill.
- 2006, Leighanne Boyd, Once Upon A Time In The Bricks (page 178)This dude at the club was trying to kill us so I deaded him, and then I had to collect from Spice.
- 2008, Marvlous Harrison, The Coalition (page 106)“What, you was just gonna dead him because if that's the case then why the fuck we getting the money?†Sha asked annoyed.